Every since it was revealed the Codexes wou;d counter some of the information in the Indexes, the community has been a little confused - well we hate to be harbinger of bad news... but it's about to get a little weirder!-"​There are a few options that are missing in the codex that appear in the index: why is that? Does that mean I can’t use these models in my army anymore?While the indexes are designed to cover a long history of miniatures, the codexes are designed to give you rules for the current Warhammer 40,000 range. There are a few options in the indexes for some Characters and vehicles that are no longer represented in the Citadel range – certain Dreadnought weapons that don’t come in the box, or some characters on bikes, for example.Don’t worry though, you can still use all of these in your games if you have these older models. In these instances, use the datasheet from the index, and the most recent points published for that model and its weapons (currently, also in the index).They still gain all the army wide-bonuses for things like Chapter Tactics and can use Space Marines Stratagems and the like, so such venerable heroes still fit right in with the rest of your army."​Via the Warhammer Community site-So it seems that for some units you will need the Codex and for some units you will need the Index.Doesn't seem like an ideal situation! Me thinks they may have made some boo-boos are desperately trying to cover their tracks. Considering the amount of "play testing" they crowed about, maybe they needed to spend more time on the typey typey and less time on the "look at us!!". Pretty poor!

Basically they are discontinuing old models that are out of production or that they wish to squat. Things like Chaplains on Bikes.

If you are one of the (unlucky) few who regularly uses these models, it basically means their final rules ever are in the Index and you will need to carry that Index around whenever you want to use these models.

Going forward, they are only going to support the units that appear in the codex. Any "Index only" units are basically in their final stage of life. It's not really going back, missing things, or covering anything up, GW has probably planned this since Primaris. And, put on your tin foil hats because this is just a very very huge assumption on my part, this also means they can eventually make a C:SM with only Primaris in say 9E or 10E, and people will just rely on the 8E Index for oldmarines or if they make an Index for future editions.

It's not really covering their tracks. The other option would have been for GW to say "too bad these units are no longer in the game" and that would be far more upsetting than having to carry around one additional softcover book. They knew this, so they even said at the beginning that all current units would still be playable and supported. And that way of playing and support is basically the Index.

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In a time before 40k, there was a band of men and women who took part in gaming without the corporate sensibilities of today. Take a step back with us and also look upon the future through wizened eyes and curious ponderings of The Beardy Hammer!